Women’s Soccer falls to Lady Falcons at home

Late Friday afternoon Southern University’s women’s soccer team took on the Lady Falcons of Southern Mississippi on their home field for the first time this season. Despite their previous games ending in losses, the Lady Jaguars came out with a fight but still came up short. Southern Mississippi won the game 4-0.
There was an extreme amount of pressure placed on the Lady Jags, simply because this was the first home game of the season. There was even a bigger amount of pressure placed on the goalie, sophomore Kendra Lewis, who had to step up to the plate unexpectedly early this season.
“Kendra Lewis stepped in a role that we really didn’t expect her to play in right away but she’s really taken on the responsibility and done a great job,” said Head Coach Courtnie Prather.
With so much talent coming from Kendra Lewis, veteran Jamie Blackston, and other players, fans may wonder why the Lady Jags have been struggling lately on the field. The answer to that question may surface with knowledge of the fact that Kendra has to make too many saves a game.  An alternative answer to that question may be the fact that there is no leadership on the field. Coach Prather stated that she is asking everyone to become more of a leader on the field, including the freshman.
SU was outshot this game by 19. The Lady Falcons attempted 25 shots while the Lady Jags only attempted 5. The defense in the backfield was out standing in the first half, hence the fact that the Lady Falcons were scoreless for the first 38 minutes of a 45 minute half. The first three goals were scored in 10-minute intervals. This may be a result of fatigue on Sothern’s end or just skill on Southern Miss’ end. Either way this is detrimental to the offense.
“From a coaching standpoint, we think that we definitely should have done a lot better. We had a great first half, or a good first half. We showed some improvement in the things we’ve been working on from day to day and week to week but the second half we came out enormously flat and we didn’t do what we needed to do and stay consistent in the way that we play so we didn’t get the result that we wanted,” said Prather.
Moving forward, the Lady Jaguars look to bring experience from their non-conference games to the SWAC in hopes to have a successful season. Their next game is set to take place on Friday September 18th, against Louisiana Tech in Ruston, Louisiana.